Portable electronic devices have become ubiquitous and users increasingly rely on portable electronic devices for a variety of tasks. Portable electronic devices may include devices such as smartphones, cellular phones, tablet computers, mobile computing devices, digital cameras, fitness trackers, two-way radios, video players, audio players, and/or other types of portable electronic or communication devices, including combinations thereof.
There is an increasing need to determine locations of portable electronic devices, particularly in indoor locations. It may be desirable to determine the location of a device for a variety of reasons including: because the portable electronic device has been misplaced or lost, to locate a person carrying the portable electronic device, to determine a presence of the person or the portable electronic device within a specified area, to conduct targeted marketing activities, to conduct location based marketing activities, to interface with an Internet-of-things system, and/or to perform other functions related to the location of the portable electronic device, including combinations thereof.
While Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) receivers are often used to determine a location of an electronic device, use of GPS methods typically requires including a GPS receiver in the device and may also require that the device have an unobstructed, or somewhat unobstructed, view of the sky. Improved methods are needed for locating devices in indoor environments and/or without requiring a GPS receiver. Some existing indoor location systems indicate whether a portable electronic device is within range of the system without providing an indication of where the portable electronic device is relative to the system. Further, some systems determine a distance, range, or radius of the portable electronic device from the system without providing a direction and/or without determining an angular relationship of the device to the system. In some cases, this is solved by adding more nodes to the system and performing triangulation or trilateration calculations. However, more nodes increases the complexity of the system, the cost of the system, and/or the complexity of installing and configuring the system. Therefore, improved methods of determining locations of objects relative to a single node or beacon are needed.